As I'm installing the Apogee HD in an AMD system, I requested and received an optional mounting kit which consists of a new bracket, screws, springs, washers and plastic spacers. Swiftech has modified this kit somewhat from the one included with the Apogee XT/XTL. Aside from the new flat black powder coating on the bracket, they've switched to using socket hex cap screws. They've also now included a second set of plastic spacers to go between the bracket and motherboard that will help prevent over-tightening and bending the bracket. What they left out however is the plastic washers that went under the bracket and held the screw, spring, spacer assembly in place. Without these it makes holding all of these pieces together during installation very difficult.

To further complicate matters, the socket hex cap mounting screws are a different size than the ones that hold the block assembly together, and Swiftech has only included one hex tool with the kit. The small black tool pictured is the one provided and is the correct size for the block assembly. However the mounting screws required the slightly larger silver tool which came from my personal collection. To make installation easier, I borrowed the plastic washers from the Apogee XTL kit to hold the mounting assembly together, and left out the second set of spacers. As long as you follow the installation procedure and stop tightening the screws once the springs compress to the first set of spacers, there's no chance of bending the mounting bracket and the second set becomes redundant.

Since completing this review, Swiftech I'm told is revamping the AMD kit, and will hopefully address some of these issues.

Now that the Apogee HD is installed and the system refilled and bled, let's get some performance numbers.